Man, I have gotten to post a lot more than I thought I would--it's probably a good thing too cause I can't remember most things longer than a day.
Yesterday was the Branch Activity--Cecelia (the mother of my host family) and I have been devising games for this Fear Factor Activity all week! It was tons of fun and a great way to get down and dirty with the rest of the Branch. I brought Bertie Bott's Beans from the States and we had to pick numbers and eat the number that we got (not knowing what flavor it was). We passed cracked raw eggs to our teammates and tried to fill a cup (every time that Sarah cracked an egg into my hand she squirted it all over the both of us). IT was nasty and reall slimy! We drank shots of straight lemon and lime concentrate--it must have been all those years of going to IU because I am one good shot drinker. And of course my favorite was digging gummy snakes out of a pan of Cool Whip (or the equivalent here) and putting them on a plate for our teammates to eat--using only our mouhts. I was a mess and we got some pretty nice pictures that I will try to post!
Today was Church and that was quite the experience. The Branch PResident asked if I would introduce myself and bear my testimony. COme on folks, we all knew that it was coming--in a Branch of 25 people. (And for the record there were 18 there today). Also, the word got out that I play the flute and I think they already have me lined up for something- had better start practicing! Everyone was relaly friendly though and on Tuesday we are playing NEtball--which I have wanted to learn since I got here. It sounds like it is a cross between Ultimate Frisbee and basketball. Should be interesting...
After Church, SUe (the teacher that I am working with) took me and a friend around to do a Garden Walk. There is a Garden competition in Bathurst and the gardens were open this weekend for viewing. It gave me a really good idea of the city and they pointed things out for me. They took me up on Mount Panorama which is the site of this huge car rave in AUstralia--think Indy500 in a town of 30,000 people. The race is around this mountain basically and I had been told that it is also a public road. Well I was picturing a normal road that they raced on but instead imagine the Indy 500 race track as a public road. Complete with side rails on the turns that are smeared with paint from the cars hitting them at high speeds. There was a pit, garages for the cars, starting line, advertisements over the road on banners, the whole rac-car-loving-nine-yards. And to top it off there are normal street signs that you would see in any neighborhood and homes--homes that were winners in the Garden contest. It was quite a fascinating combination and an awesome view of hte Blue Mountains and the valley that Bathurst is in.
After my Garden Walk I went to the neighbors who have been dying to meet me since I arrived. I thought that they watned to quiz me about AMerica. BUt come to find out Mike's Dad was an American who married his mother while on tour wtih the Navy. THey got married but his Dad returned to the states and to make a long story short Mike didn't see his Dad after he was three and his father died when he was eight. But the connection to me is that his Dad was from a little town called Carfolk, Indiana (between Indy and Lafayette). They were dear people and it was so fun to chat with them and for his to show me pictures from when he was in the States 40 years ago. It is always nice to know the neighbors and they want me to come over for barbie sometime while I am here. I amt telling you, such nice people live in this country.
After dinner tonight I was talking to Cecelia and Tia came in--now Tia is three. And she starts babbling about something. I asked Cecelia what she was saying and Tia said "hokey pokey!". APparantly the Couple missionaries that were here from the States taught Tia to say "Okie Dokie" but instead Tia yells "HOKIE POKIE!" It was HILARIOUS--with her little AUssie accent.
ANother story I forgot to tell you is when I was doing the times tables with the kids last week. They were all giggling about something and I couldn't figure out what because they weren't talking to each other. Finally SUe yells, "STOP!" I thought that I was doing something wrong but hse turned to the kids and said, "stop trying to say it in HER accent!" APparantly the kids were trying to mimick my accent while we were doing the times tables. "Just do it in you AUstralian accent!" Of course I was totally oblivious... my kids make fun of me and I don't even know it--Crickey! :)
AND a SHOUT OUT to the 2006 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION Cardinals! Man I am stoked about this one! I can't wait till I get back to the States so that I can watch the highlights! First WS victory for the Cards since my birth! Ahhh...it's good to be a baseball fan! :)

I think I may have actually gotten the hang of this Australia thing. Although this has been anything but a normal week at school. When I arrived on Wednesday morning there were fire trucks parked outside and the area around the library was roped off. I thought, "oh great, we had a fire". I stopped the first teacher I saw and asked her for the skinny. She said that someone had hopped the fence during the night, hooked the hose up to the fire hydrant, stuck the hose under the library door, and turned it on. Needless to say it flooded the library and the last three days have been sent trying to dry it out and salvage materials. Apparantly the little hoodlums did the same thing at the court house earlier this month.
Yesterday I was on duty at recess (we are monitoring the Kinders this week) and one little boy came up to me and in a cheeky tone said, "Why do you talk so funny?" And you all know me, with as much class as I could muster I shot back, "Well why do YOU talk so funny?" And without missing a beat the boy said, "You want a piece of me!" All I could do was laugh--this little red headed kinder trying to pick a fight with the tallest teacher in the school. And an American no less--he obviously didn't know how he was messing with. :)
Because I am carless I had the blessed opportunity of walking to town yesterday (it's about a 30-45 minutes walk--uphill both ways in the snow...oh wait, it's in the 80's here). And I shopped at everyone's favorite store...da...da...da BIG W! You got it--the Australian version of Wal-Mart. I can't believe that I traveled half way around the world to find a Wal-Mart.
Of course everyone here is fascinated with my accent (which isn't that much different from being in the states). All of the kids in the school know that I am from America and random children will come up to me all the time and say, "What's the word for dancing in America?" "How about yellow?" Cross your fingers that the novely will wear off sooner than later.
Those are really the most exciting things. My vocabulary is expanding with every conversation. Just wait until I come back and order you to throw something in the rubbish bin. Or to get out your textas for drawing (yea, markers--who would have thought...not me). :)
I am sad that I am missing all of the Cardinals excitement. I will expect a blow by blow from my Dad when I call this weekend. Of course they would be playing this well when I leave the country. HONK!
I love you and hope you are enjoying the nice winter weather!

They really do call each other "mate"! It was exciting for me too! And I have been called several other choice terms of endearment, including: Blossom, buddy, doll, darling, etc.
I was going to tell you that nothing exciting had happened over the last two days but I figured you would all know I was lying. My flights went fine. But pretty much after I arrived in L.A. I was lost. I had no idea what I was doing, I just wondered around a lot and people took pity on me. I loved the flight over the great wide ocean--even though I didn't get to sleep nearly as much as I would have liked. But I was set up with my own personal screen that included: television, radio, movies, games, and flight status info. So many options right at my finger tips AND 38,000 feet in the air! It's better than being on the ground! When I landed in Brisbane I had the choice experience of going through customs. And they even let me in! With only one luggage glitch that experience went off without a hitch. As I left the International Terminal I was greeted by over 200 total strangers. It was quite overwhelming knowing that I knew absolutely nobody in this country. A kind gentleman pointed me in the right direction so that I didn't have to lug all my junk on the train to the domestic terminal. Once I stepped outside into the warm weather it hit me that I had officially fulfilled my life dream. It was AWESOME! And when I got to the domestic airport there were tons of banners with baseballs on them. It was as if they knew...hmmmm... I knew I was going to like this country! :)
When I got to Sydney I collected my luggage and got into a taxi. The whole time I was just praying that we wouldn't die, everytime that he turned i was afraid that we were going to end up in oncoming traffic. I made it to the train station where I wandered around some more before I found my platform. I took a three hour ride to Lithgow--through the mountains--it was just gorgeous! Cecelia and Tia (the mother and three year old in my host family) met me in Lithgow and drove me the rest of the hour home to Bathurst.
It was such a relief to be done with traveling and I was exhausted. The Garlicks are just wonderful people and I feel so blessed to be living with them. They have two little girls Sarah (7) and Tia (3). I pretty much just went to sleep Sunday night after meeting the fam and eating.
Then I went to school...Now this was frightening. I had to walk there (about 15 minutes) and had no idea what to expect. Of course, you all know me, I got there honkin' early and waited around for someone to take pity on me and tell me where I was supposed to be. Sue, my teacher, came over and asked, "are you Monica?" I nodded and she gave me a HUGE HUG! It was great! She introduced me to the staff and then we had playground duty. As I stood in the middle of hte courtyard I could see tons of kids staring at me, pointing, and whispering. It really was like I was an alien. Oh yea, and Tia and Sarah watched me brush my teeth that morning. I swear I do it just the same as everyone else! Anyway, bunches of cute kids with hats and accents came up and introduced themselves to me! They were all SO polite and SO friendly. We had morning assembly where I was introduced to the school. SO now everyone knows my name and anywhere i go the students always call out to me and say hello. It really is special--people are so honkin nice here.
Man, I need to wrap this up. I will have to give more stories later. But for now let me just say that there is a definate language barrier. How was I supposed to know that taking a torch to bed didn't mean that you were sleeping with an open flame? Yea, its just a flashlight. Good one, Mon. And I went to a singing competition much like Solo and Ensemble today. The 2ns years sang --my class and another--and got first place in their section! It was really exciting and something cool to see in my first couple of days!
I really am having the time of my life! I haven't had much time to just sit down and think. You people better not be having too much fun without me though. I love you all!

Prologue:

Well for those of you who either didn't get the memo or may have forgotten, I am going to Australia. I just finished my Indiana Student Teaching yesterday. I loved my fourth grade class here in Bloomington. They were adorable and really made me realize why I want to be a teacher. (I mean who wouldn't when you have kids tell you that you could be a runway model and shower you with gifts! :)) I will miss the little tykes but look forward to coming back and seeing them in January.
I just HAVE to throw this paragraph in! :) The Cardinals won the National League Championship series last night. So of course I was up honkin' late talking to my Dad on the phone. He had to hash and rehash every key play, since I don't have television. Of course I am excited that they are in the World Series (although it is against the Tigers, who are bound to win!) but I am sad that I am going to miss it because I am all the way on the other side of the world. But I guess Australia is a good alternative.
I am doing the rest of my student teaching in a Catholic school in Bathurst Australia. I will be working in a second grade classroom for about two months and living with a host family--two daughters. After my student teaching ends, my bro David, will be coming out to travel around Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. So this blog is to catalogue my adventures and share them with all of my loved ones back home (that's you). I hope I can make it interesting.
I have already had drama today. I SHOULD be getting on a flight in 50 minutes but I got a phone call this morning, just as I was leaving for the airport, that my plane to Dallas had been cancelled. What!?! Cancelled!?! That isn't supposed to happen. They got me on another flight and I will be off to STL this evening. St. Louis to Los Angeles, Brisbane, Sydney, and than a taxi and a train to Lithgow, where my host family will pick me up and drive me to Bathurst. It's insane... in fact it is exactly 38 insane hours of travel. I will let you know how it all goes down when I arrive.
I love you all and will miss you terribly. Take care of the good ol' USA while I am gone and be safe!
till next time...